Played three turns of the Troy scenario the other night and just wanted to jot down a few first impressions. I would say for me the verdict is still out on this one. Troy is probably not the most representative scenario of this game since there are very few chariots, but the lure of the heroes was just too much for me so I really wanted to try it. I was the Achaens and my buddy Ralph was the Trojans.

We set up with both armies on board to try to make things go a bit quicker. Achillies was sulking in camp while Patroclus was in the front lines leading the Myrmidons to glory.

The Trojans set up along the river and the Greeks 10 hexes away. Not having studied the arms superiority chart in advance, I was surpised to see all of the Trojan BI on their left flank. I put a lot of my strong SI in my center and left, with a mix of BI and SI on the right. I also put a large contingent of BI behind the center as a reserve. In hindsight I think both of us made some mistakes in set up. Lesson learned: study the arms superiority and aggressive reaction rules carefully! Hint: barbarians are a very useful counter to chariots, but are of little use against SI.

In the first couple turns we just maneuvered into position, and had just started the clash of lines on the third turn. The Achaens have a marked superiority in troops quality, but the Trojan leadership is very good, and Hectors trump ability can stall the Achaen advance seemingly at will. As the battle started to develop I could tell it would get more interesting as things went on.

This game is quite different from previous GBOH games in a few ways. First, you use action markers drawn from a cup to see which force moves. This limits the amount of activity a group can undertake and slows the tempo of the battle considerably compared to other GBOH games. This game also has quite different rally rules, which feel similar to those in Men of Iron, with a standard that troops appear at when they are routed. My opponent and I have played a lot of GBOH and Men of Iron, and I think for us the jury is still out on these changes. We need to play more of this, especially some of the massed chariot battles, to really decide if we like them or not.

Overall based on a single, partial scenario playing, I think this is an interesting addition to the GBOH series. In some ways it feels simpler than other games in the series. The weapon systems definitely have their own quirks and tactics. Although we didn't get far enough in our game to use the Hero rules, I love that sort of chrome and would definitely play the Troy scenario again. (The fact that I'm planning to finish our current game solo instead of cleaning it up is a good sign.)

One disappointment-- the Trojan leader counters are missing their names. The counter manifest in the manual helped a little to figure out who was who, but without the back of the countersheet we couldn't make a 100% positive ID. Hopefully we'll see corrected counters at some point.

Thanx for your comments . . . and the "changes" reflect mostly our approach to the era of warfare rather than ny design to just change the system. Things were much simpler and direct in the The Bronze Age . . .